Webcast Help Page
 



1. Bid Ladder
The bid ladder shows the progress of the bidding on this lot and offers bid buttons. In this case there was a bid from the crowd at the auction, then a bid on the Internet and another bid from the crowd, leaving the bidding at $10,500. This bidder can now set a bid limit by clicking on one of the grey "Bid up to" buttons.

   
For this example the bidder wants to set a bid limit of $12,000 and so clicks the appropriate button. This brings up the bid confirmation screen (shown middle above) and the bidder simply clicks on the same spot to confirm the bid limit. If no one else bid first, then a bid would be placed on their behalf at $11,000 as shown on the above right. If no one else bids then this Internet bidder will get the lot for $11,000. However, if someone else bids $11,500 then a bid would be placed for this bidder immediately at $12,000. In fast auctions it is important for Internet bidders to set a limit as far up the bid ladder as they are comfortable and then have the system, bid rapidly on their behalf.


2. Lot Display

The lot display shows the information about the lot that is being offered along with a picture of the lot. If you click on the picture, it will take you to a big picture of the lot.

   

3. Fast Index

The Fast Index is shown in light blue at the bottom of the top diagram above, it has a link to every tenth lot. So for example to move to lot 93 in the catalogue, you could click on the link for lot 90 and scroll down three lots. On a phone this is much quicker than scrolling through the whole catalogue. However the Fast Index does take up space and some people like to click on the "Hide Fast Index" button to remove it.

   

4. Sound

The 'Turn sound on' button can be used to turn on or off the audio stream of the auctioneer. If you have a poor Internet connection or are experiencing delays turning off the sound can improve performance.

   

5. Lot in Catalogue

The full version of this program shows the photo catalogue to the right of the bidding screen. In the phone version the catalogue is below the bidding screen. But it is still easy to see the current lot in the catalogue. Clicking on the "Lot in Catalogue" button will take you straight to that lot in the catalogue.

   

Catalogue Screen

The catalogue has a picture and description of every lot. Lots that are sold, are indicated by a light grey, the current lot on offer is highlighted in light blue.

   

6. Follow Auction

Clicking on the "Follow Auction" button will take you to the bidding screen for the current lot. Catalogues can be long and unwieldy on a phone. These three buttons remain visible at the top of the screen so you can always easily go to the top and see the current lot, log on to bid, etc.

   

7. Logon

When you have finished bidding you can click the 'Logout' button to log off. When you start this program that button is labelled 'Bidder Login' and is the button to click to login. You will then be prompted for your email address and password. When you login you will be given a paddle number for this auction, in this case the bidder has paddle number 5155.

   


8. View My Lots

After logging in, clicking on "View My Lots" will show the lots you have bid on and the lots you have favourited. All other lots will temporarily disappear. This makes it easy to keep an eye on the lots you are interested in. Clicking the button a second time, will make the hidden lots visible again.

   

Find

A search function has been added. By default only the lots that contain text that matches the search string are shown.

   

9. Photo Catalogue

Clicking on the lot description takes you to a page where you can bid on the lot. In the full version of this program that page also contains a big picture of the lot, but on a phone there is not enough room to see all this at once. Clicking on the photo takes you to the page shown below with the big picture of the lot. There is an important differnce here. Clicking on the small photo takes you to a bigger photo and clicking on the lot description takes you to the bidding screen for the lot.

10. Favourites

Once you have logged in, you can favourite a lot by clicking on the favourite box. Items you have fovourited are highlighted and shown when you click on "View My Lots". It is a good habit to favourite the lots you are interested in, as it makes it easier to find those lots and follow them.

Lot Screen

This screen shows the big picture of the lot and lets you navigate through the lots.

   

11. Bidding Screen

Clicking this button takes you to the screen where you can leave bids on the lot.

   

12. Back - show catalogue

Clicking this button takes you to this lot in the catalogue.

   

13. Change Lot

The next and previous buttons will take you to the next/previous lot. If you want to move quickly through the lots, the "Forward Ten" button takes you forward ten lots and the "Back Ten" will take you back ten lots.

   

Screen goes black

It can be hard to watch an auction on a phone that goes to sleep every few minutes. To set the sleep time out on an iPhone go to "Settings", (either "General" or "Display & Brightness"), "Auto-Lock" and choose "5 Minutes". For an Andriod phone go to "Settings", "Display" and choose either "Screen timeout" or "Sleep" again selecting "5 Minutes" should improve things greatly.

Large Screen Version

This help sheet is for the version of the program designed to run on mobile phones. The version for larger screens, on tablets and computers is a bit different and has its own help page, which can be accessed here.

Further Information

If your problem is to do with bidding you should try the offline demonstration auction. A valuable chance to practice bidding without buying anything. If your problem is with getting things to run, you should look at the system requirements page. You can recover your password or change it, at the 'Register Now' page. Finally there is other useful information available from the frequently asked questions FAQ page. All of these can be accessed from the web page that lists the webcasts for this auction house.